I was thinking of volunteering for the suite as well. I wonder if I am qualified though. My first aid and CPR cirtificates have lapsed, but I did manage to raise 4 children successfully. I do tutor in a local college computer lab, so I have some experience handling people.

I will hold off though for now since I have yet to register.

Here's to the few
who forgive what you do
and the fewer who don't even care

Sounds like good qualifications to me! We have an excellent security volunteer, Jeff Young, who runs his own security firm locally, very experienced. We will have our own security team under his direction which can interface with those at the Westin and Macdonald etc. So there is backup and the hospitality suite people are not completely on their own handling whatever matters may arise.

Yet to be chosen are the local "event pilots", people to lead groups of fans to the various venues where events will be etc. That was a highly effective part of the event in Berlin.

Kim,
I suspect that many of our European colleagues will opt for Lister Hall -- and if we make it known that there will be very cheap accommodations available, we stand a better chance of the Europeans coming over. Is it possible we'll need more than 40 rooms?
d.

Which is closer to the Westin? The Days Inn Downtown or the Holiday Inn Express Downtown? Perhaps, you've already mentioned this elsewhere; but if walking's the issue with the dorms, an hour is probably going to be too much for me. It would need to be a shared cab or the LRT. The pass sounds like the way to go if the LRT. I'll be interested to hear if they'll give a reduced rate.

Kim, maybe you had better explain to us what you mean in your reply to Evelyn, "quietly and without alcohol." That certainly doesn't describe Lister Hall as I remember it during my two undergraduate years there. And it doesn't describe any university residence I'm familiar with today. Sounds more like a monastery than a university dorm -- but then, from The Book of Longing, I learn that there seems to be a lot of brandy and wine drunk in monasteries as well.

My recollection is that Lister Hall is the name of a complex that consists of three residence towers and a central meeting area/cafeteria. The residences are named after Canadian explorers: MacKenzie, Henday and Kelsey. Each floor in these towers consists of three wings each radiating out from a central common area that is used for a tv lounge and where you also find the elevators. Washrooms are found at the end of each of these wings, nearest to the central area.

Students partied in their rooms, or frequently in the wings, and often in the common areas. If there were restrictions on either alcohol or noise, either none of us were aware of them and they were not enforced, or the student leaders on each floor secured permission to bend the rules on frequent occasions. The common areas on each floor are very suitable for the kind of late night passing of the guitar we have in mind. In fact, we did the same thing in Montreal when many of our colleagues stayed in the university dorms at McGill.

Perhaps there will be occupants of the Lister Hall dorms other than our merry crew, and among those, there may be a few who would rather not join in on our all-night songfests or share a glass of wine with the rest of us monks. It might be best, then, if we are to obtain 60 rooms, that they all be on the same floors, in contiguous floors.
d.

The University got rid of the pub in Lister Hall last year, and the restrictions on alcohol use were the main reason I opted to book the space in the Westin for hospitality 24/7. I will get more details on the University's alcohol policy but it is clear that the partying will be better downtown. We cannot have all our rooms together, they will be spread around Lister Hall. We are guests of the University there and must comply with the rules, and be good neighbors for the others staying there unrelated to the Cohen event.